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ofphilosophers and political theorists. To someextent, therefore, the traditional political scien-tist couldafford to be an "unconscious thinker"-the thinking had already been done for him.This is even more the case with the country-by-country legalistic institutional approach, whichdoes not particularly require hard thinking.2However, the new political science engages in re-conceptualization. And this is even more thecase, necessarily, with the new comparative ex-pansion of thediscipline.There are many rea-sonsfor thisrenovatioabimis.Oneis thevery "expansiononpolitics."Tosomeextent politics results objectively biggeronaccount of the fact that the world is becomingmore and more politicized (more participation,more mobilization, and in any case more stateintervention in formerly non-governmentalspheres).Inno small measure, however, politicsis subjectively bigger in that we have shifted thefocus of attention both toward the periphery ofpolitics(vis-A-visthe governmental process),and towarditsinputside.By now-asMacridis
puts it-we study everything that is "potentiallypolitical."4 While this latter aspectofthe expan-sion ofpoliticsisdisturbing-it ultimately leadstothedisappearanceofpolitics-itisnotape-
culiar concern forcomparative politics,inthesensethat othersegmentsofpoliticalscienceareequallyandevenmoredeeplyaffected.5
2
This isby nomeans a criticismofacompara-tiveitem by itemanalysis, and evenlessofthe"institutional-functional"approach.On thelattersee thejudiciousremarks ofRalphBraibanti,"Comparative PoliticalAnalyticsReconsidered,"TheJournal ofPolitics, 30(February 1968),44-49.
3For
the variousphases of thecomparative ap-proach seeEckstein'sperceptive"Introduction,"inH.Eckstein andD.E.Apter(eds.), ComparativePolitics(Glencoe:Free Press,1963).4"ComparativePolitics andtheStudy of Gov-ernment:The SearchforFocus,"ComparativePolitics,(October1968), p. 81.'On the"fallacy ofinputism" seeagain there-marks ofRoy C.Macridis,loc. cit., pp.84-87. Inhis words,"Thestate of thediscipline can besummedup inonephrase:the gradualdisappear-ance ofthepolitical." (p.86). A cogentstatementof theissue isGlenn D.Paige,"TheRediscoveryofPolitics," in J.D.Montgomery andW. I.Siffin(eds.),Approaches toDevelopment(New York:McGrawHill, 1966), p.49 ff. Myessay "FromtheSociologyofPoliticstoPoliticalSociology," inS.M.Lipset(ed.),Politicsand theSocialSciences(NewYork: OxfordUniversity Press,1969),pp.65-100,isalsolargelyconcernedwith thefallacyofinputismviewed asasociologicalreduction ofpolitics.
Aside from the expansionof politics, amorespecific source of conceptual and methodologicalchallenge for comparativepolitics iswhat Brai-banti calls the "lengtheningspectrumof politicalsystems."6 We arenow engaged inworld-wide,cross-area comparisons.And whilethere is anend to geographicalsize, there is apparentlynoend to the proliferationof politicalunits. Therewere about 80 States in 1946; it isno wild guessthat we may shortlyarrive at 150. Still moreimportant, the lengtheningspectrumof politicalsystemsincludesa variety of primitive, diffusepolities at verydifferent stages of differentiationandconsolidation.Now, the widerthe world under investigation,themoreweneedconceptual tools thatare abletotravel. It isequally clear that thepre-1950vocabulary of politicswas not devisedfor world-wide, cross-areatravelling. On theother hand,andinspite of boldattempts atdrastictermino-logicalinnovationsit is hard to seehow West-ernscholars couldradically departfrom the po-litical experienceof the West, i.e.,from the vo-cabulary of politicswhich hasbeen developedovermillennia on the basis of suchexperience.Therefore, the firstquestion is: howfar, andhow, can we travelwith the help of theavailablevocabulary of politics?By and large,so far we have followed(moreorless unwitingly)the line of least resistance:broadenthe meaning-and thereby therange ofapplication-ofthe conceptualizationsat hand.That is to say, the larger the world, themore wehaveresorted toconceptual stretching,or con-ceptual straining,i.e., to vague, amorphouscon-ceptualizations.To be sure, there ismore toit.Onemay add,forinstance, thatconceptualstretchingalso representsa deliberateattemptto make ourconceptualizationsvalue free.An-otherconcurrentexplication is thatconceptualstrainingislargely a "boomerangeffect"ofthedeveloping areas,i.e.,a feedback on theWesterncategoriesofthediffuse polities oftheThird
6
"Comparative PoliticalAnalytics Reconsid-ered,"loc.cit., pp. 36-37.
'The
works ofFredW. Riggsare perhaps thebestinstanceofsuchbold attempts.For a recentpresentationsee"The Comparisonof Whole Po-litical Systems," in R. T. Holt and J. E. Turner(eds.), TheMethodologyof Comparative Research(New York: Free Press, 1970),esp. pp. 95-115.While Riggs' innovative strategyhasundeniablepractical drawbacks, the criticism of Martin Lan-dau("A General Commentary,"in Ralph Braib-anti (ed.), Political and AdministrativeDevelop-ment (Durham: Duke University Press, 1969), pp.325-334.) appears somewhat unfair.
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